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Looks nice, @knittingmommy! And thanks for the information about CampNaNoWriMo. If I ever pick up writing stories again, I may have to try that. I don't know about you, but I always have to plan out my story first. I need to know where I'm going before I head out on the journey. I may decide to take some side paths along the way, or think of something better before I get there, but I think the outline helps me bring things together.
So, I took my original Red Rabbit render into Filter Forge to play with a couple of filters. I was surprised by the fact that the color information is still in the image even with the tone mapping that I had set in DS. I guess that info must still be in the render somehow. I'm not really all that up on what information is in an image when you save it. I was surprised by the two extreme variations that I got with the colors on my two favorite filters. Both have a look that I really like because they do sort of remind me of illustrations in old books.
Mixed Media Illustrator:
Old Book Illustrator:
I picked up some of the M3 clothes that were on sale along with the Wear Them All. Here is the first thing I've tested out so far. It's 3 Piece Suit for M3. The surface settings needed some work after converting to Iray, but overall it did fairly well. I had a problem with the tie that comes with this suit. I might have to actually read the manual and see if I can figure out a fix for that. If not, I'll take it into Blender and see if I can make a morph for it. It doesn't seem to want to lay against the chest after fitting. I'm not sure why.
Bow Tie:
Vest:
Glossy Reflectivity needed to be turned off. Note: render turned off early when I noticed the problem:
Tie Problem:
Crotch Distortion:
I also fixed the shoes. After converting to Iray, they were a little on the dull side as you can see in the render with the bow tie. I darkened the black on the shoe and upped the gloss a little bit on the shoe surface. I'm not sure why the vest had so much gloss on it, but I turned the Glossy Reflectivity, the Glossy Roughness and the Glossy Layered Weight off on the vest. Unfortunately, it's getting late and I forgot that I probably should have kept the gloss on for the buttons. I'll fix that later. There is some slight distortion in the crotch area I'll have to see if I can fix. It's really only noticeable in the light colored materials. I do like that there is a crease morph for these pants which you can turn on, default is off.
That was indeed a very shiny vest! And yes, that crotch looks a bit odd. On a related note, that tie was probably just happy to see you.
But can you get those things fixed, I'd say you got a winner.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Will give me some tips on what to do when I try to use some of my old clothing.
Never thought of using Filter Forge to apply filters to an image. Will keep it in mind.
Yeah, I'll post when I figure out those fixes so others can use them if needed. I'll try to make the tie unhappy, too. ;)
I like Filter Forge. I've even been working on making my own filter. We'll see how that goes. I've never made one before.
Okay, so here is another quick older item. This is M304 and BAM3 by Uzilite on @Gypsyangel's new guy Mace for Genesis 3 Male which I picked up recently. This is the first chance I've had to render him. I love his rugged good looks. He is also wearing the Michael 3 Millennium Beard which I have to say looks pretty good on Genesis 3 males! I love this beard and all of the styles that it has. I used UHT2 Shaders on it and it looks pretty good in Iray. I had to fiddle with the surface settings on the textures, but it wasn't too bad, just a few adjustments.
The background is just a couple of planes with shaders on them. I actually like the look with the marble reflecting back the figure so I might have to do an actual render that reflects back a room or something other than that plain dome that I have going on in this scene. This was just a quick render to test out the clothes and beard.
It says there are morphs for the shirt and jacket in M304. I'll have to dig down and search for them because I haven't found them yet. I'd like to see how close I can get to the promo shot which I though made the clothes look pretty cool.
Note: fixed the vendor's name. I always get that vendor's name wrong! Ugh!
I hope everyone had a great Easter.
Filter Forge is fantastic! I tend to use it for postwork on images and also creating seamless textures.
While I've not used it yet to make my own filters, I have slightly tweaked some existing ones. It looks like there are amazing possibilities.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Hmmm how does one go about making seamless textures with filter forge?
This pose is going to be quite a challenge!
On a lot of the textures, it's a simple checkbox option. Other than that, as far as I know, it's magic.
Well, if I manage to finish it, I'll let everyone know what it is called so you guys can download the filter if you want and check it out.
Yep, I know. Good think I like a challenge. I did figure out where the morphs all are so now I just need to work on the posing. As TJ says, in FF, it is a checkbox option. Some filters show a repeatable pattern even when seamless, but most don't. Yep, magic. Somewhere, I watched a video on how to make a seamless tile in Photoshop. I'll have to see if I can track down that video for you. I don't know if I saved that to my playlist or not. It wasn't all that difficult IIRC, but there were a lot of steps. Luckily, I think most were automated and simply clicking on tools or something. I'll look and post it here.
That would be awesome. I have a lot of fabric patterns that I would like to make seamless. I'm going to start working on figuring out how to texture uv maps in the very near future and seamless is good lol.
I'm okay with magic lol. Never noticed that button but I am usually using the filter in Photoshop for special effects and don't necessarily need it to be seamless.
I found two tutorials on making seamless patterns in Photoshop. One was the one I remember seeing before. The other one seems to be new and popped up on the suggestion list and looks like it has a new way of doing one of the steps. I'm including both links since I know there are some people who still use older versions of PS and I don't know when this new cloning tool was introduced into PS.
And a couple of PDF tutorials for those who don't like video tutorials. Yes, I know you are out there! ;)
Seamless Patterns Tutorial by Nanshi Nibble
How to Make Seamless Patterns
I'll have to see how to do this stuff in Gimp. For the seamless tiling, I think there is actually a seamless filter that takes care of the math and other stuff for you. I'll have to play with it and see. For now, I think all of the steps in the first video work in Gimp, too. I'm not sure about this new cloning tool in PS. I'm not sure Gimp has an equivalent to that yet.
Hey KM - I was looking for seamless textures, and found this plug in for Photoshop that automatically makes it seamless for you.. It probably won't work in GIMP, though. May want to check it out anyway. There is a tutorial that goes with it, but it doesn't have any sound.
http://www.the-orange-box.com/portfolio/free-seamless-textures-generator-v-2/
Thank you both! I will defintely be checking those out
That's cool! I found that there is a similar plugin for Gimp which I thought there was, but I wasn't positive. Nice to know there is one for PS, too. I like that the PS one also seems to be free.
This one took a really long time to render and it was mostly due to Aiko's skin. It was hard to get the grain out. The set, her dress, and the butterflies rendered really fast and looked great way before her skin was finished. See gallery link for items used and credit for the stock background I used for the sky.
Aiko's Butterflies
Gallery Link
Very beautiful image! Great colors!
I played with filter forge during teh 30 day free trial, but I didn't really have time to get into it enough so found it a bit confusing...
you and Sonja are making me want those butterflies! lol
Thanks so much! I love that Boho Garden. I think the colors are great. They work well with the iReal Animated Butterflies. I need to explore and see what the whisps look like. The rest of the colors I chose a little muted to let the colors in the pillows and the butterflies really pop. I was really surprised at the nice morphs for the Lothriel Outfit. There was a kneeling morph that worked well with my pose.
I like it. I use it a lot for some of the NPR filters. I did the framing for Aiko's Butterflies in there. It was Watercolor Frame. I thought it worked out rather well with my picture. The butterflies are awesome!
Lovely!
Thanks, @FirstBastion! Long time, no see. I hope that means you've been busy on more great sets. :) I'm glad to see you still popping in now and again.
The Boho Garden is in my wishlist. That turned out beautifully! Lovely bright colors
Thanks, Sonja! I have been making good use of some of the postwork tips I've been learning. :)
I haven't had time to do any postwork. I've been managing some quick renders to see what things look like and thats about it. I have a wholes stack of stuff I need to get into PS and do something with lol.
I've been thinking. And, yes, I know that's a terrible thing at times for me. ;) The more I get into this 3D art the more I realize I don't know about this thing that I'm doing. I'm learning new terms all of the time like mixed media, 3-dimensional art, photomanipulation, pixel art, text art, typography and a whole host of other terms.
We bring a whole host of skills to this thing we call 3D art and I wonder how one attempts to categorize what it is we do. For some, the render is the end goal and that's all they do. I was like that when I first started. I did as much in DS as possible because I didn't know how to do anything else. I could barely figure out what I was doing in DS at times. I'm doing my best to improve my skills in a whole host of other things that I would never have thought of trying two years ago. The more I learn about postwork and what I can do a render after DS spits it out the more it boggles my mind.
As my skills grow, though, I wonder if what I'm doing is still just 3-dimensional art. I have some images that are complete and I just do a little bit of post and call it done. I have some that render intentionally without a background so I can have the transparency and add backgrounds in Gimp. I might take a render of just the character out of DS and do all sorts of things with it in Gimp like draw hair and clothing. Yes, I'm actually rendering naked, hairless people in an attempt to figure out how to do just that!
If I'm rendering just a part of my image and then putting it all together with other 2D approaches, is it still 3D art? Does it suddenly become 2D art or mixed media if I suddenly have more than one way of pulling together an image?
I'm currently attempting to render an image with Canvases. Just playing around trying to see what I can and can't do with the resulting .exr files. Along with that, I've got several nodes where I'm rendering out just parts of my image. Different nodes, different parts of the image being rendered. If it works, I'll have a hairless figure in one layer and the hair in another. My attempt at a solution to be able to do postwork on the eyes even if there is hair partially obscuring the eyes. I don't know if it will work. I kind of hope so. I'm still such a novice when it comes to Canvases. But, then I have to take it all into Gimp and play with the layers. Maybe add in some elements that weren't rendered. Does it suddenly become something other than 3D art?
I'm not sure if I can ever answer any of those questions. I do know I'm having fun. I also realize that there is still SO much more that I do not know about this whole 3D world.
Oh, boy. Now you're getting philosophical.
I used to have the same dilemma when I worked with watercolors. If I added india ink and gouache, was it mixed media?
Now I suppose if you added digital painting to it, then it may be considered digital art. Personally, I really don't care.
To be honest, I'm not sure if I care either, but I was uploading art to DA and there are all of these choices and how am I supposed to know which one is the right category? I'm not even sure what I'm doing with my art half the time. I'm just having fun and winging it. I've always been horrible with titles and trying to put things in nice neat little boxes. And, there are the questions from family and friends about my art and what exactly it is that I do. I post my art on my Facebook page just so my family knows what I've been up to. I rarely get on to talk and I'm not good at the whole social media thing.
But, I do have family who asks when they see a new picture. I never know what to say because most of them don't know anything about art done on the computer. Their eyes glaze over when I try to explain what it is I've been doing.
"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck." (I know there's variants on that) Ducky doesn't walk, nor does he quack, but he's still a duck! (well, sort of) Same thing goes for what we do. I personally think CGI is the best term to describe what we do - Computer Generated Images, because we make (generate) them with computers. Then it doesn't really matter what software we use or how many different kinds of processes we go through to complete the image.
At a place like DA with so much images of various origin, I can understand their desire for categories. But the irony is that the more categories you make and the more specific they get, the more there will be that doesn't fit in any of them. So I wouldn't worry too much about that. Pick one the feels close enough.
As for explaining to others what we do. Don't you know it's an artist's fate to be misunderstood?